Satoshi Hojo, the older brother of Satoko Hojo (who calls him "Nii-nii"), was born on June 16, 1968. He stands roughly a year older than Keiichi Maebara, sharing a similar height and build. His appearance features blond hair and red-violet eyes, though artistic portrayals sometimes vary his eye color. He is commonly seen in his school uniform or baseball gear, often carrying a baseball bat. A distinctive quirk is his inability to tell cauliflower from broccoli, hinting at possible color blindness he shares with Satoko. After his mother and stepfather died during the Watanagashi Festival—the second recorded victims in Hinamizawa's mysterious deaths—Satoshi and Satoko were placed with their aunt and uncle, Tamae and Teppei Hojo. Enduring their abuse and the village's ostracization of the Hojo family, Satoshi became convinced only he could shield Satoko. He routinely took physical punishment meant for her, causing his health to deteriorate. The relentless stress activated Satoshi's Hinamizawa Syndrome, leading to paranoia, auditory hallucinations like phantom footsteps, depression, and severe headaches. He increasingly viewed village rumors and incidents through the lens of Oyashiro-sama's curse, fearing he was marked for death. Driven to stop Satoko's suffering, Satoshi lured Tamae into the forest and killed her. While the sound novels suggest he might have only witnessed her death, the anime clearly depicts him as the killer. Authorities blamed the murder on a fabricated "drug addict," a cover-up arranged by Irie Kyōsuke and the Yamainu to hide Satoshi's involvement and disappearance. Following the killing, Satoshi vanished. False police reports claimed he boarded a Tokyo-bound train in Nagoya, but this was a ruse. Irie confined him to the Irie Clinic's underground facility under heavy sedation to control his advanced Hinamizawa Syndrome. His disappearance unleashed a chain of tragic events, including Shion Sonozaki's vengeful killing spree in Watanagashi-hen and Meakashi-hen. Satoshi's relationships were complex. He was intensely protective of Satoko, sacrificing his own well-being for her safety and even buying her a coveted teddy bear instead of using the money to escape Hinamizawa. He sometimes expressed weariness about this burden but never faltered in his devotion. Shion Sonozaki developed deep romantic feelings for him after their initial encounters, though he remained unaware of her existence early on due to her impersonation of Mion. When he learned her true identity, he complimented her name. Before vanishing, he entrusted Shion (disguised as Mion) with Satoko's care, a promise that later fueled Shion's actions. Mion Sonozaki, his classmate and friend, invited the siblings to the school club to ease their isolation. Shion suspected Mion also had feelings for him, which Mion later admitted but suppressed for Shion's sake. Rena Ryūgū briefly connected with him over shared experiences with Oyashiro-sama and mental instability, regretting her inability to halt his decline. Keiichi Maebara, who never met him, initially resented him for "abandoning" Satoko, though this animosity faded in later arcs. Keiichi later wielded Satoshi's baseball bat, sensing his protective spirit during crises. In Matsuribayashi-hen and Miotsukushi-hen, Irie developed a cure for Satoshi's condition, enabling his recovery and eventual reunion with Satoko and Shion. The OVA Batsukoishi-hen features him in a dreamlike sequence serving yogurt to Keiichi during a club punishment, though this doesn't confirm his physical freedom. The anime Sotsu concludes with him awakening to see the teddy bear he gave Satoko. In the 20th-anniversary manga series *Higurashi no Naku Koro ni Rei*, set 35 years after the main events, Satoshi appears married to Shion and residing in Hinamizawa.